In mid-October, the production team’s autumn harvest gradually began.
Mother Bai carried her luggage and left in high spirits.
For the better part of the next half month, she would live in the town’s only guesthouse, then follow the propaganda troupe as they went from one production team to another to perform.
“Dad, just don’t be reluctant to part with Mom. Didn’t the brigade leader grandpa say there’d be militia responsible for safety, and the food would be good too?” Bai Shuhua tugged at Bai Dad, afraid he would turn into a wife-watching stone.
Bai Dad let out a long sigh. “Ai, why can’t family members be allowed to come along.”
Bai Shuhua rolled her eyes, she had really wasted her emotions.
Bai Dad turned his head and said, “Eldest girl, school’s on break, right?”
Bai Shuhua had a bad feeling. “Mm, ten days of autumn harvest break.”
Bai Dad wore an expression that said, “Dad is entrusting you with an important task.” “Then cooking will be your responsibility from now on, tell your little brother to tend the fire.”
Bai Shuhua bared her teeth. “I can’t do that.”
Bai Dad was very unconcerned. “Why can’t you? Didn’t you make dough-drop soup last time, and you can boil porridge too. Right, the family saved up ten eggs, those are for nourishing my body. Ai, we didn’t get any meat, I haven’t tasted meat for more than three months.”
Then he looked at Bai Shuhua, a little reluctant, and said, “Don’t worry, Dad won’t eat it all by himself.”
Bai Shuhua knew the autumn harvest was exhausting, so during this period every family’s food had to be quite a bit better, otherwise where would they get the strength to work.
But she was really afraid of messing it up.
Actually, she knew how to make ordinary home-style dishes, but in her previous life she had never used a big pot.
That thing didn’t work like a gas stove, where you could adjust the heat from high to low or turn it off.
So she only dared to start with boiling porridge.
She seriously suggested, “Dad, why don’t we tell Grandma that we’ll eat together during the autumn harvest. We wouldn’t be taking advantage of anyone, we could bring a bit more grain and things like that.”
Bai Shuhua felt this suggestion was quite reliable.
Unexpectedly, Bai Dad still refused. “No need, Zhenzhen’s cooking isn’t much better either, and she’d still have to put up with it. Eldest girl, you try first, and if it doesn’t work, Dad will do it.”
Since Bai Dad had said it to that extent, Bai Shuhua could only agree helplessly.
Bai Shuhua called over the only employee, Little Brother Bai, to tend the fire.
He could do this job, and he would also listen to instructions.
For example, fire smaller, fire bigger, don’t add any more firewood.
The only inconvenience was that he was small and weak, so he couldn’t pry apart slightly thicker pieces of firewood.
But with Bai Dad there, if he had him split them beforehand, Little Brother Bai tending the fire would have no problem at all.
When Bai Shuhua saw the stove pit had been lit, she stacked three mud bricks on top of one another and stepped on them to test them. They were quite steady.
This way, she could stir-fry while bending over, and didn’t need to stand on tiptoe anymore. That was too tiring.
Today at noon, she planned to make steamed rice.
Of course it wouldn’t be pure white rice, but a mixed one.
Inside were rice, sorghum, coarse corn grits, and potato strips.
But for flavor, she planned to season the potato strips first.
As for why they were potato strips, it was simply because they were easy to cut. Besides, although the sorghum and corn grits had been soaked since early this morning, they still weren’t easy to cook through, so the potato strips were quite large.
There were few seasonings at home, just a bit of soy sauce and salt.
In this era, soy sauce was just soy sauce. It still hadn’t been divided into light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, seafood soy sauce, and the like, so there was no fear of pouring in the wrong kind.
While the potato strips were taking on flavor, Bai Shuhua didn’t plan to stand idle either.
First, she boiled a large pot of water.
The weather wasn’t as hot now, especially mornings and evenings were chilly, so it was necessary to prepare more hot water.
And she was also thinking that when she delivered lunch at noon, she would bring Bai Dad a portion of wild chrysanthemum tea as well.
“Little Brother, what flowers did we pick this morning, and what are they like?” Bai Shuhua tested her younger brother.
Little Brother Bai answered without hesitation at all. “They’re wild chrysanthemums. Wild chrysanthemum is mildly cold in nature, and it has the effects of dispersing wind-heat, reducing swelling, and detoxifying. It can treat boils and swollen sores, sore throat, wind-heat red eyes, headache, dizziness, and other ailments.”
If Bai Shuhua hadn’t been too far away, she really would have wanted to rub her little brother’s head. His memory was really good, as expected, a new brain was useful!
As expected of her brother.
She praised him, “Very good, keep it up. In three more days I’ll reward you with a piece of candy.”
It wasn’t like he was being rewarded for nothing, there were conditions.
But it was still very good.
As for why she knew it, of course it was because she had learned it from her good friend Xiaobing.
As for who Xiaobing learned it from, naturally it was the old doctor.
Little Brother Bai heard about candy and indeed worked even harder at tending the fire.
“Sis, it’s smoking.”
Bai Shuhua had already seen it. The water was boiling. She opened the pot lid, and the white steam nearly engulfed her.
Fortunately, the kitchen was only a small shed and was well ventilated, so the steam dispersed quickly.
After the autumn harvest, Second Uncle would help build a mud-brick house. By then cooking in winter would be comfortable, but summer would definitely be hot. There was simply no way to make everything perfect.
Bai Shuhua only thought about it for a moment. The mud-brick house still had to be built, otherwise in winter, when the snow fell and the wind blew, wouldn’t the whole shed be filled with snow? Then there would be no way to cook.
She still needed to use the gourd dipper to scoop out the hot water.
She scooped it into the clean vegetable basin on the stove.
Inside there was already quite a lot of washed wild chrysanthemum.
Why not use the thermos directly to brew it? That wouldn’t do.
Did they know how hard thermoses were to buy? It was really the kind of thing you couldn’t buy even if you had money.
Her family had almost fought over that thermos.
It was just that Eldest Aunt Bai was very sour about it and had goaded Grandma Bai into borrowing it. Anyone could guess that a loan like that would be a loan with no return.
Bai Dad and Mom naturally refused.
Then Grandma Bai cursed them for being unfilial, ungrateful ingrates.
Only later did Grandpa Bai curse Grandma Bai, and that matter finally settled down.
That day Bai Dad and Mom had even talked about the thermos on the heated kang bed.
Mother Bai guessed that Grandpa Bai was also coveting the thermos, Bai Dad wasn’t all that certain.
The couple once again stood on the same side, the thermos would be used only by their own family, and not lent out.
Now she knew how precious the thermos was, Bai Shuhua didn’t dare to waste it.
When she saw the wild chrysanthemum had steeped enough color, she hurriedly scooped it into the thermos. That was Bai Dad’s drink for noon and afternoon.
What remained was naturally for her and her brother.
She added more water to the pot and started cooking and preparing the dishes.
She planned to make the kind of steamed dish least likely to go wrong, so it could be done in one pot together with the steamed rice.
She put on the washed steaming rack, and placed the rice basin on top.
Then in the empty spaces around the basin, she put green eggplant, potatoes, and long beans, and covered the pot with the lid.
“Stoke the fire, big fire.”
Little Brother Bai nodded. “Alright.”
Bai Shuhua took a small basket and went to the vegetable garden, pulling a few scallions.
These were the key to making steamed dishes delicious.
Although the Bai family had split up, some things only existed in one portion and simply couldn’t be divided.
For example, the vegetable garden, which came with the house plot.
If the second branch and third branch built houses elsewhere in the future, they would naturally have new vegetable gardens.
For now, everyone could only use it together.
And the soybean paste could also only be shared among the three families.
However, the newly made soybean paste was made separately by the three households, and next year it would be completely separate.
As for the paste jars, they naturally belonged to Grandpa and Grandma Bai. They had to buy their own.
She plucked the scallions, washed them clean, and placed them on the stove as backup.
When Bai Shuhua saw the pot already giving off white steam, she told Little Brother Bai, “Make the fire smaller.”
Bai Dad had said that for steamed rice, once the pot boiled, add three stovefuls of firewood. When all of it burned out, let it simmer a bit longer, and then it would be ready to open.
She had to keep an eye on it. She couldn’t let it overcook.
“It’s about done. Xiaojun, put in the last bundle of firewood and don’t add any more.”
“Got it, sis.”
Bai Shuhua planned to take her younger brother into the room to lie down for a while and rest a bit. Later, she still had to deliver lunch to Bai Dad.
The autumn harvest was also called the race for the autumn harvest. The word “race” already explained a lot of things.
So during this period of the autumn harvest, the team members were not given leave.
And in order to do more work and earn more work points, at noon, besides the person cooking, the vast majority of people did not come back.
“Dani, Erni! Come help me cook!”
Who was so furious? Bai Shuhua leaned out to look, it was Bai’s youngest aunt.
Probably Grandma Bai felt sorry for her and let her come back to cook, so she could also take the chance to rest for a while.
The matter with Bai’s youngest aunt had basically already passed, but recently this person had started slipping back into her old ways again.
She was really disgusting.
“Are you deaf? I called you once and you didn’t hear? Hurry up and get out here!”
Bai’s youngest aunt then looked toward the third branch side again. “Sanni, go pour me a basin of water.”
Bai Shuhua directly refused. “I’m not going. You’ve got hands and feet, why are you ordering me around? I still have to cook.”
Bai’s youngest aunt came over in a rage, looking ready to hit someone.
Bai Shuhua was no longer afraid, and picked up the fire poker.
“Auntie, I’m cooking too. Eldest sister went to the fields to earn work points and hasn’t come back.” Erni timidly came out, still explaining, “I really didn’t hear you just now.”
“You little wretch, why don’t you know to start cooking earlier at home? So slow and dragging your feet! I don’t care, go tend the fire for me!” Bai’s youngest aunt assigned Erni a job, then directly turned on Bai Shuhua. “You little wretch, you dare not pour water for me!”
Bai Shuhua refused again. “I haven’t finished my work yet.”
As an elder, if she had properly and seriously asked, Bai Shuhua might have done it.
But this Bai’s youngest aunt really didn’t have the slightest bit of an elder’s bearing.
The way she acted and behaved was really annoying.
Bai’s youngest aunt strode angrily toward the third branch’s kitchen, looking like she was about to start a fight.
Bai Shuhua held out her little hand and made a stop gesture. “Auntie, don’t come over to my side. My dad said to keep away from you and not learn from you messing around with men!”
These few words were quite powerful. Without even cursing, they still made her even more upset.
But she was lying. Those words weren’t said by Bai Dad, they were told to her by Mother Bai.
But she chose to blame Dad.
Bai’s youngest aunt went mad with anger and rushed straight over. Bai Shuhua swung the fire poker that had been heated red by the flames once, forcing her back, then turned and ran.
She ran to under the big willow tree and started circling around it.
Bai’s youngest aunt couldn’t catch her, and was almost smoking with rage. Her curses didn’t stop either.
They were already very filthy, and her parents were both included too.
Bai Shuhua wasn’t angry. She could even smile as she answered her. “I’m a bastard, so what is my father? If my father is also a bastard, then what are my grandparents? Auntie, you’re really unfilial!”
“What are you playing at?”
A passing aunt saw them circling around the willow tree and found it amusing. She thought they were playing.
Bai Shuhua immediately said, “Second Aunt, my youngest aunt hit me. I was cooking for my dad, and she insisted I serve her by pouring water. If I wouldn’t do it, she hit me.”
As for the saying that family ugliness shouldn’t be aired in public, anyway Bai’s youngest aunt had already lost all her face long ago.
The aunt very disapprovingly looked at Bai’s youngest aunt. “The child is working too, can’t she pour her own water?”
Bai’s youngest aunt knocked the tree trunk twice and didn’t even bother with that aunt. She angrily ran home, and before leaving she didn’t forget to throw down a harsh threat. “If you’ve got the guts, don’t come home!”
Bai Shuhua hopped her little feet. “We’ve split up, I’m going back to the third branch, not to your home!”
The aunt had originally been a little angry, but seeing Bai Shuhua like this, she also wanted to laugh. “The little girl is pretty fierce! Aren’t you afraid of getting beaten when you go back?”
Bai Shuhua puffed out her small chest. “Not afraid. Second Aunt, I’m going home now, I still have to cook.”
“Sis, sis… wuwu…”
Bai Shuhua hurried over. It was her little brother. “Little brother, what’s wrong?”
“Auntie pushed me, my butt hurts.” Little Brother Bai was wronged.
And his butt hurt from falling too.
Bai Shuhua gritted her teeth. If the difference in strength weren’t so huge, she would have wanted to go beat her door down.
This Bai’s youngest aunt really deepened her disgust again and again.
Wasn’t Grandparents Bai even busier trying to find her a match? Their efficiency was too slow.
“Little brother, don’t cry, I’ll give you candy when we get home.”
She had to make it up to Little Brother.
Little Brother Bai immediately stopped crying. “Xiaojun won’t cry.”
Bai Shuhua took her brother’s little hand. “Later, when we go deliver lunch to Dad, remember to complain.”
“Sis should complain too!”
“Mm-hm, we’ll complain together.”